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The Dickinsons and the Todds: a Screenplay Thesis 7j NO. 1--Z WILD NIGHTS! WILD NIGHTS! THE DICKINSONS AND THE TODDS: A SCREENPLAY THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By William Neal Franklin, Jr., B.A. Denton, Texas August, 1988 Franklin, William Neal, Jr., Wild Nights! WidA!Vghtsf The Dckinsons andthe Todds: A Screenplay Master of Arts (English), August, 1988, 121 pp., bibliography. Emily Dickinson's seclusion is explored in light of her family's strange entanglement with the Todds. Austin Dickinson's affair with Mabel Loomis Todd, and the effect on the lives of Susan Dickinson, Lavinia Dickinson, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, David Todd, and Millicent Todd Bingham, provide a steamy context for the posthumous publication of Emily Dickinson's poetry. The screenplay includes original music (inspired by the dashes and an old hymn) for two poems: "Wild Nightsl Wild Nights!" and "Better - than Music!" Also included are visualizations of many of Dickinson's images, including "circumference," "Eden," "the bee," and "immortality." Copyright by William Neal Franklin, Jr. 1988 iii -w-:,A4 "No noWmmwi, Fmw TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACT I . I ACT II . 38 ACT III . 89 iv WILD NIGHTS! WILD NIGHTS! ACT ONE FADE IN EXT. EDEN - DAWN From MT. OLYMPUS, we SEE MT. RAINIER, the "Mountain-that-was-God," across PUGET SOUND, over a hundred miles to the east. In absolute SILENCE, the mid-summer dawn fills the sky with rose-golden colors. The clouds below the mountain fill the Sound, waves of vapor, frozen in space. Above the horizon hangs a sliver of CRESCENT MOON. ZOOM SLOWLY until the Moon fills the screen. VENUS, a small but very bright disk, suddenly appears against the dark edge of the circumference, the conclusion of an occultation. As the emphasis shifts from the mountain to the moon, we begin to HEAR a LUTE, the sound of SURF, BAMBOO WINDBELLS, and SEAGULLS. A VOICE sings the melody, but not the words, of the following: I 2 WILD NIGHTS! WILD NIGHTS IMPROVIZATION D DD 6 Wild Nights Wild Nightsi Were I with Theel D R A Wild Nights should be our Luxuryl L hEG Futile the Winds to a Heart in Port Done with the compass - Done with the chart - ___Ii I Rowing in Eden - Ahhhl The Seal S_ Ji I Might I but Moor Tonight - in Theel The MUSIC is enhanced by a FLUTE and a CELLO playing a counterpart theme, "Amazing Grace." CUT TO EXT. THE DICKINSON HOMES - DAY From high on a hill, we SEE two large homes. The one on the left is the EVERGREENS, home of AUSTIN DICKINSON and his wife, SUSAN DICKINSON. The one on the right is the HOMESTEAD, the home of EMILY DICKINSON and 3 her sister, LAVINIA DICKINSON, who is also known as VINNIE. From our POV we SEE the rear of the two homes. These are stately New England mansions, set about with gorgeous huge trees in all the fullness of spring. A great storm hangs in the sky. There are barns, carriage houses, fences and hay stacks, all very neat and orderly. All is freshly washed by a rain which has temporarily ceased. We HEAR the SOUND of BUZZING. SLOW ZOOM on the HOMESTEAD. INSERT AND FADE "May 15, 1886" EMILY (V.0.) I heard a fly buzz - when I died - The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air - Between the Heaves of Storm - From the upstairs window at the far right of the Homestead we SEE a window open, and a mattress is thrown out. CUT TO INT. EMILY'S ROOM - DAY Bright sunshine enters the room through lace curtains. There is a writing desk and straight-backed chair, a dresser, a few pictures on the wall. A locket with a small picture of young SUSAN DICKINSON hangs above the desk. The bed is slatted, with no mattress. BLUR FADE INT. THE PARLOR - DAWN SUSAN, a stern looking matron sits beside the coffin. She is in her late fifties, and is dressed in mourning. Emily's face is not shown. Susan is placing 4 violets and pinks at Emily's throat. The expression on her face is one of tightly contained sorrow. She sheds no tears. EMILY (V. 0. ) The Eyes around - had wrung them dry - And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset - when the King Be witnessed - in the Room - VINNIE, a pretty woman with grey-touched auburn hair sits in the next room, motionless. She is somewhat younger than Susan. Her eyes look around, the only part of her to move, focusing on nothing, as though she is hearing something with great difficulty. Her face shows great pain. EMILY (V. 0. ) I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away What portion of me be Assignable - and then it was There interposed a Fly - Susan empties her basket of flowers, stands, looks down at the corpse. A fly BUZZES. Susan waves it away, and finally begins to lose a little of the strong control she has maintained. She bends over to kiss her life-long friend goodbye, and collapses in tears. EMILY (V. 0.) With Blue - uncertain stumbling Buzz - Between the light and me - And then the Windows failed - and then I could not see to see - CUT TO INT. PARLOR - DAY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON stands before the funeral party, which is comprised of AUSTIN DICKINSON, his sister, VINNIE DICKINSON, his children, MATTIE and NED DICKINSON. DAVID TODD and his wife, MABEL LOOMIS TODD are there, along with about a half dozen others, mostly women in their forties and fifties, accompanied by their servants. SUSAN is absent. I I.r " I 5 Thomas Wentworth Higginson is a man of about sixty. He is well dressed, very proper. He wears spectacles. Austin Dickinson is a large man of about fifty-nine. He has large bushy muttonchops, and speaks excruciatingly correct Bostonian. His children, Mattie and Ned accompany him. Mattie is a young woman of about nineteen; Ned is about eighteen. Mabel Loomis Todd is a pretty young woman of twenty five. Her husband, David Todd, is a man of about thirty, a short, slender man with a full bushy beard. Mabel stands in an attitude which shows that she is with Austin, though they never touch. There is a general SOUND of soft mourning, and especially from Austin, who is distraught. All are dressed in formal mourning attire. HIGGINSON (Quietly) No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere I see Heaven's glories shine, And faith shines equal, arming me from fear. CUT TO EXT. FIELD OF WILDFLOWERS - LATE DAY/DRAMATIC SKY Six men carry the coffin across the field, followed by Austin and Vinnie, then by Mattie and Ned, then by Mabel and David and the others. HIGGINSON (V. 0.) 0 God within my breast, Almighty, ever-present Deity! Life - that in me has rest, As I - undying Life - have power in Theel We SEE the Homestead and the Evergreens in the background. In the foreground we SEE the funeral procession approaching the CEMETERY, 6 several hundred yards away. It is the most beautiful of spring days in Amherst, Massachusetts, and the meadow through which the procession moves is alive with bees and wildflowers. CUT TO EXT. CEMETERY SUSAN kneels at an open grave, lining it with boughs of evergreen. She sees the procession coming, hurries to finish her work, and leaves. HIGGINSON (V. 0.) Vain are the thousand creeds That move men's hearts: unutterably vain; Worthless as withered weeds, Or idlest froth amid the boundless main, To waken doubt in one Holding so fast by Thine Infinity; So surely anchored on The steadfast rock of immortality. The procession approaches the grave. HIGGINSON (V. 0. With wide-embracing love Thy Spirit animates eternal years, Pervades and broods above, Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears. WIDER, favoring first the funeral party, then the giant oaks above them, and finally, the sky, vast, and full of sun-gold clouds. HIGGINSON (V. 0. ) Though earth and man were gone, And suns and universes ceased to be, And Thou were left alone, Every existence would exist in Thee. 7 There is not room for Death, Nor atom that his might could render void: Thou - Thou art Being and Breath, And what Thou art may never be destroyed. We SEE the bright, flaming edge of the sun-gold clouds. DISSOLVE TO CLOSE SHOT of FLAMES in a fireplace. INT. EMILY'S ROOM - DAY A CAT watches with wide eyes. VINNIE throws a letter on the fire. It blackens and bursts into flames before we can read anything. The cat stretches in front of the fire. Vinnie is seated at the writing desk, a box full of bundles of letters before her. She lifts one of the bundles out, unties the narrow red ribbon which binds it, and reads to the cat: VINNIE Judge Otis Lord. Well, Pussy, this will keep you warm - for a short while, anyway. She thumbs through the stack, pausing occasionally, pain apparent on her face. She occasionally mutters, but it is completely unintelligible. She shakes her head. She picks up the bundle and feeds it to the flames. VINNIE What an awful lot of letters, Emily. Hmmmph. She thumbs through another stack. VINNIE Ah - the little cousins. 8 She looks up, again with pain on her face. Then she turns and feeds the letters into the flames. She picks up a poker and stirs the flames. Now we SEE several empty boxes, and a large heap of smouldering ashes in the fireplace.
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